Risks outdoors.

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I was just wondering what the actual risks are outside?

I thought being outdoors was supposed to be very low risk. So in theory a family meetingnup with another family for a country walk would be very low risk (but not allowed obviously). Similarly in theory tennis and golf.

I can understand there being other reasons for banning all this (not least the simplicity of saying no to everything. L
)

However. If I'm personally obese, asthmatic or diabetic etc. Is it safe to take kids to play areas and similar. I had been assuming all outdoors was fair game (we've been avoiding shops and indoors...) but is it safe?

I think the theory is that you will distance more from strangers in e.g. a park than you will from friends
I have no idea on how safe or unsafe things are though although, you are right, outdoors is safer than indoors

Yes of course it’s safe, you catch it from other people.

Well Bluntness that was what I assumed. I had assumed being around other people outdoors was safe, which is really the question. Ie other kids at the play area, walking with a friend etc.

The restrictions have made me question that. Im fully aware that lack of ventilation and indoor crowded spaces are the most risky. What's the outdoor risk?

For example I had been meeting weekly with a group of 4 of us in a garden at 2m distance. We will stop as its illegal, but I had assumed it was actually safe if you see what I mean?

There are very few cases of outdoor transmission. Crowded beaches, VE day street parties and protests did not cause rises in transmission at a point when the majority of public indoor spaces remained closed.

Nothing is "safe" but the government have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. There simply is not the evidence to justify shutting down well-managed outdoor sport/ recreation and it is far more harmful than beneficial.

The benefits of outdoors activity and social contact far outweigh the risks of infection.
And evidence of transmission on surfaces such as playground equipment is also very low.

Sorry that wasn’t clear in your op, but you appear confused.

So what you’re asking is it safe to socialise closely with people outside. Then it’s neither dangerous or safe, it is simply risky. It is the same as inside. Inside it’s because you sit closer together, use the same loo etc.

I think it's very low risk, but they have decided what they have decided.

I wondered if I'd missed something. Not being able to meet up with other families outdoors/ do sport will limit my kids exercise quite severely. We're taking them out anyway but they're at ages they like friend to run around with.

I also have liked to socialise outdoors which helps peoples mental health, isolation etc.

I wondered if I was mistaken in thinking it was "safe", if there's something I didn't know. Or if there were political reasons and it would be fine for me to be around others at the park etc.

This is from Sage talking about the case for and against masks outdoors (p21).

It talks about the very low risk of transmission outside.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/925856/S0770_NPIs_table__pivot_.pdf

So bluntness you think being outdoors with people is risky? I hadn't thought that had been shown to be the case.

Purple. Thanks that looks like the sort of data Inwas after and will read it now.

As I'm vulnerable I'd start wearing a mask outdoors if outside was risky. Ie if I bought a coffee from an outdoor trader.

But until this week I genuinely thought it wasnt risky (apart from the first 8 weeks I shielded until the then evidence about outdoors came out.)

Yes, of course, if you’re close enough to someone with it, for long enough, then it’s a risk.

How long it 'hangs' in the air is hard for them
to measure in real terms, all they know for sure is that it does. You can fit thousands (tens/hundreds? Of thousands of virus on a pin head, you don't need many at all to get sick. Some people exhale a lot of it, others not so much.

It's safER outside , not safe.

Golf/tennis im sure is more about keeping this simple, because when they don't people complain it's too complicated or unfairrrrrr.

Bluntness. I dont think it is. Walking beside someone outside is a very different risk to being in the same room for a period of time.

@PurpleDaisies really interesting thankyou. It does say that masks outdoors were pretty pointless given it doesnt match with the science! Quite reassuring.

Well, it’s not safe in that it’s not possible to say anything is completely safe but that’s not very helpful in helping the op assess the risk here. All the evidence shows there’s a very low risk of transmission outdoors. There weren’t spikes after the Black Lives Matter protests or people packed the beaches in summer.

Op if you’re going to be really close to someone or you’d feel more comfortable with a trader, put a mask on but really there’s no need if you’re at a sensible distance away.

Witches when I last looked into it ages ago it looked like the opposite was true. Hence 15mins within close contact. Or an hour in the same room.

For example all the news about how long the virus stayed on objects was later considered irrelevant as it was researched that they had used a higher concentration of virus.

Similarly we initially panicked about post etc and walling where someone else had walked when we first came out of shielding- but that hasnt been held at all to be the risk. Even the hoardes at the beaches didn't inflate rates.

@PurpleDaisies I'm vulnerable and want to be sensible (we're not going indoors places) but hadn't been worrying at all outdoors. I wasnt sitting face to face, but was going for walks and playing on the beach/park etc and jot being too worried. I just wondered if I was wrong.

It's safer outside for various reasons, for example the breeze carrying another person's breathe away from you, any breathed-out droplets falling to the ground and then staying there rather than on indoor surfaces where they linger, and sunlight breaking the virus down very quickly.

But obviously, as with a cold or anything else contagious, there is still a risk that you could catch something if you were unlucky or get too close to someone who has it.